Courtney Love

Love her or loathe her, the opinionated, brutally straightforward, and seemingly always controversial Courtney Love is one of the most notable figures in alternative rock. Born on July 9, 1964 in San Francisco, CA, Love was raised in Oregon. As a teen, Love began listening to new wave and punk, musical styles that would influence her band Hole. After traveling to countries like Ireland, Japan, and England, Love moved to Los Angeles, CA. In 1986, Love appeared as Nancy Spungen's best friend in Sid and Nancy, director Alex Cox's film about Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his lover Spungen. Love was also cast in Cox's Straight to Hell. Neither picture brought Love the stardom that she craved. Love then relocated to Minneapolis, MN, and formed the all-female post-punk group Babes in Toyland with Kat Bjelland. Bjelland eventually tossed her out of the band. After working as a stripper in Alaska, Love returned to Los Angeles and started Hole in 1989 with Eric Erlandson (guitar), Jill Emery (bass), and Caroline Rue (drums). Hole released their debut album, Pretty on the Inside, in 1991.

A year later, Love married Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. Rumors of drug use between the two began surfacing in the press, and a Vanity Press article revealed that Love was using heroin while she was pregnant with their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain. In April 1994, Kurt Cobain committed suicide; two months later, new Hole bassist Kristen M. Pfaff died from a heroin overdose. Although it was recorded before those personal tragedies, Hole's second album, the ironically titled Live Through This, captured the searing pain and violent anger of somebody undergoing a tragic loss. Rumors persisted that Cobain co-wrote a large portion of the album, a claim that Love vehemently denied despite claims to the contrary by many of Cobain's closest friends. No concrete evidence was ever released to back those claims, and she maintained a semi-professional relationship with his former bandmates by forming a partnership with them called Nirvana L.L.C. The organization would control all Nirvana-related releases and try to protect the interests of the three parties, but strife between Love and the rest of the band developed through nasty press comments made by both sides.

Meanwhile, Hole released Celebrity Skin in 1998, but the album came nowhere near the popularity of her previous effort. Despite the band's best promotional efforts (which Courtney dove headfirst into, as always), sales were discouraging enough for bandmembers to start dropping off, essentially dissolving the group while her acting career was taking off. In 1999, Love was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance in the movie The People vs. Larry Flynt. She would stay relatively quiet for a few years, making a few film appearances and bragging up various projects with Louise Post and Kat Bjelland that never surfaced. But when former Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl announced a 45-song Nirvana retrospective that would include two never released tracks, Love immediately brought them to court in an attempt to wrestle away the rights to the material. Manager/boyfriend Paul Barber tried to become the peacekeeper in the situation, even showing up at the studio for the mixdown of one of the unreleased songs. But Love moved to dissolve Nirvana L.L.C. and managed to stop the release of the album until the matter could be brought to court. The box set was aborted and the three individuals began to hype the upcoming court hearings like a boxing match, inviting the press out and making sharp barbs at one another in interviews. She announced her intentions to spearhead a Nirvana "greatest-hits" album à la the Beatles' 1, and claimed that she had hundreds of home tapes to go through and a journal that she planned on publishing.

Love also began to speak out on musicians' rights, suing her record company and bringing to light unfair business practices on the part of the industry. She began making her interviews and speeches platforms for her newfound cause, and created quite a stir at the South by Southwest Music Conference in the spring of 2002 when she directly announced her intentions of starting a music industry revolution. All that was forthcoming, however (beside more eccentric publicity), was a solo album, 2004's America's Sweetheart, released on Virgin. The following year she began working on new songs, despite battling an alleged eating disorder and a stay in rehab after violating her probation by using drugs. Working with artists including producer Linda Perry, Billy Corgan, and guitarist Micko Larkin, formerly of Larrikin Love, the album Nobody's Daughter began to take shape over 2006 and 2007. In mid-2009, Love announced that Nobody's Daughter would in fact be a Hole album. She began promoting the album in earnest in early 2010, performing shows in Europe and the U.S. -- including gigs at SXSW and on The Late Show with David Letterman -- before its release. ~ Michael Sutton & Bradley Torreano, Rovi

@Hex92I bet if there were a job where you'd get paid for being an an annoying loser, you'd be f**king rich. Hope I helped you realized something xx

1 year ago

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dluellen0

edzepplinrocksme.....people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.....or in your case, if you don't know the difference between your (possessive) and you're (you are), you shouldn't insult another person's intelligence.

1 year ago

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dluellen0

edzepplinrocksme.....people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.....or in your case, if you don't know the difference between your (possessive) and you're (you are), you shouldn't insult another person's intelligence.

Conspiracy not consperises, your so uneducated, go back to school.

* you're

1 year ago

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dluellen0

ledzepplinrocksme.....people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.....or in your case, if you don't know the difference between your (possessive) and you're (you are), you shouldn't insult another person's intelligence.

Conspiracy not consperises, your so uneducated, go back to school.

* you're

1 year ago

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tina4ever613

Funny...v smh

1 year ago

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ledzepplinrocksme

Kurt's music was depressing and sad as f**k and it's f**ked that he tried to bring people who worshiped his music down the rabbit hole with him.

Misery loves company.

Court didn't kill Kurt, she had nothing to do with his sadness, she wanted to stay off drugs and wanted Kurt to follow, but he wasn't ready to commit to being drug free or a good clean and sober parent, instead, he was clingy, depressed and not fun to be around, leaving Court, no choice but to leave for the sake of Frances Bean.

1 year ago

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ledzepplinrocksme

Cherokeeoutlaw, you can't spell, you spelled rouend wrong, it's ruined, lol and last your wounded, lol were you trying to say, lol, wonder. Try using spell check next time, especially when you want to try and accuse Courtney over a stupid dumb a** whiner like Kurt. :)

All of you f**k-face jerk-offs that are praising Kurt, go hang yourselves. :) Love you Court. xoxo keep your head up. Seattle Rocks, and I'm a native.

Well, I wasn't going comment but here we go. She didn't kill kurt. Kurt killed kurt. And the note they found at the scene? She wrote that before they were married. So stop pointing fingers. Kurt was depressed, mentally ill, AND he did drugs. Put all that together and you get a recipe got suicidal thoughts. It's true that we lost a legend, but this crazy b**ch wasn't the one who did it.

1 year ago

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motis42

This chick was f!ucking nuts!

1 year ago

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adonhauser

Courtney didn't love Kurt she used him for money Kurt dint kill him self Courtney did she should have died instead of Kurt she rouend history music ... no wounded why hole didn't make it as far as Nirvana did lol hole ran out of money hmmm consperises lol and that is all

I just luv it when pole get on here 2 talk smack about good music and artists!!! There bunch of haters who don't have anything 2 do but hate!!! FYI dumb a** Courtney is a good singer, bad a** guitar player she knows how to rock, she's a good person and she didn't kill Kurt or made his life miserable!!! He wad on drugs and had problems!!! Get ur s**t right!!! Peace

Courtney love Is simillar to nirvana T_T what the hell? NIRVANA x1000> Courtney love.She Is a bad singer, bad guitar player, bad person, and Made Kurts Live Miserble (not saying she killed kurt) but she made his Live Miserble

And the sky was made of amethystAnd all the stars were just like little fishYou should learn when to goYou should learn how to say noMight last a dayMine is foreverMight last a dayMine is foreverWhen they get what they want They never want it again When they get what they want They never want it again Go on take everything Take everythingI want you to Go on take everythingTake everything I want you to And the sky was all violetThe more it gets violet more violenceAnd I'm the

4 years ago

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ceemory

This biography is supposed to be about the band Courtney Love, not the artist Courtney Love.

The band Courtney Love was fronted by Lois Maffeo. That's her in the picture. It was a tribute to Courtney Love, but Courtney Love was never part of this band.

Pandora had the right information last month. What happened?

And BTW, I think the artist Courtney Love is great too, even if she is a train wreck personally.

Courtney Love has decided to change her name to Courtney Michelle. If you want to know why, keep watching today’s Music News. Also mentioned is Conan O’Brien who will be incorporating surprise musical guests onto his comedy tour to include Spoon and Dave Matthews Band. Get the complete scoop and find out about Ben and Jerry’s new ice cream flavor named after a Tennessee Music Festival here on X1FM.com.

Kurt Cobain wishes he could write a half decent lyric, let alone the lyrics his wife was able to write.
Both Kurt and Courtney were s**tty guitar players, capable of not much more than some simple power chords... but Kurt killed himself young and became the face of a generation.
Courtney Love was always the superior lyricist.